Cliff top view of Marloes Sands on the Pembrokeshire coast. Photograph: Robert Read/Alamy

Marloes Peninsula

Distance 5 milesStart/finish Marloes Sands car park, grid ref: SM789082National Trust downloadable route and mapThe Marloes Peninsula offers dramatic coastal scenery and island views. The Deer Park, at its tip, is separated from Midland Island and Skomer by the fierce currents of Jack Sound. The geology is spectacular, including both sandstones and volcanic rocks with folds, faults and jagged stacks. An Iron Age fort overlooks Marloes Sands, one of Pembrokeshire's finest beaches. Walks for all abilities start from the National Trust car parks at Marloes Sands and Martins Haven, but finest is the walk around the peninsula. Look out for seabirds and seals. Marloes Mere is a birdwatching hotspot, attracting a large number of waterfowl in winter.

Treginnis Peninsula

Lifeboat station on Ramsey Sound with Ramsey Island across the water. Photograph: Realimage / Alamy/Alamy

Distance 6 milesStart/finish Porthclais harbour, grid ref: SM741242National Trust downloadable route and mapTreginnis, on the St Davids peninsula, is the most westerly settlement in Wales, separated from Ramsey Island with its extinct volcanoes by Ramsey Sound. This walk takes you over Wales's oldest rocks – from the Precambrian era – which dominate the peninsula. These are volcanic in origin, covered in places by layers of younger, sedimentary Cambrian rock. It's a great walk at all times of year, whether you're looking for spring flowers, summer seabirds or a freshener on New Year's Day. Watch out for porpoises, and intrepid sea-kayakers negotiating the shallow reef known as The Bitches. Halfway round is the lifeboat station of St Justinian's, about to be joined by a more up-to-date version.

St Davids Head

Photograph: Geogphotos/Alamy

Distance 3¾ milesStart/finish Whitesands car park, grid ref: SM734272National Trust downloadable route and mapSt Davids Head is Pembrokeshire's most spectacular headland, and a fine walk with several variants is possible. Climb Carn Llidi if you have the energy: the views are worth it. A magnificent seascape is dominated by Ramsey Island and the line of islands known as the Bishops and Clerks. The Head is a many-layered archaeological landscape, with evidence of human occupation going back to the Stone Age. You can see the huge slab of Carreg Coetan Arthur, a neolithic burial chamber, silhouetted against the sky from the car park. Heather and gorse give a blaze of purple and gold in late summer. Look out for choughs, peregrine falcons and ravens, and listen for the elusive Dartford warbler in the gorse.

Porthgain to Abereiddy (Abereiddi)

Abereiddy Blue Lagoon. Photograph: Alamy

Distance 4 milesStart/finish Porthgain, grid ref: SM816325National Trust downloadable route and mapThis walk offers a chance to enjoy some of Pembrokeshire's finest coastal scenery while exploring its industrial past. The tiny fishing port of Porthgain used to export road stone all over the UK, while Abereiddy's famous Blue Lagoon was once an old slate quarry. Ynys y Barri (or Barry Island) is also home to a fantastic array of wildlife. Begin your walk under the looming brick stone hoppers by the harbour and enjoy a fabulous clifftop walk above the great quarry. Follow the old tramway inland from Abereiddy back to Porthgain and end up back in the famous Sloop Inn (sloop.co.uk).

Dinas Island

Photograph: James Jagger/Alamy

Distance 3 milesStart/finish Pwllgwaelod car park, grid ref: SN005398National Trust downloadable route and mapNot an actual island (for now, at any rate), Dinas Island is a huge whaleback of land dominating Fishguard's harbour and commanding stupendous views across Cardigan Bay to Snowdonia and Llyn. The route climbs steeply, and is a test for the leg muscles whichever way round you do it. From the summit, look west to the scene of the last French invasion of Britain, in 1797 at Carreg Wastad. This is not a long walk but one to test your fitness, with plenty of reasons to stop and admire the scenery. You should see choughs, peregrine falcons and, in summer, seabirds nesting on Needle Rock. There is a gentle return along the inland valley. Finish up at the Old Sailors pub in Pwllgwaelod.

Stackpole

Broad Haven South on the Stackpole estate. Photograph: Alamy

Distance 6 milesStart/finish Car park at Stackpole Quay, grid ref: SR990958National Trust downloadable route and mapStackpole is one of Wales's richest nature reserves, with an important designed landscape at its heart. This walk takes in lakes, woods, beaches, dunes and cliffs. The lakes were created 200 years ago as a backdrop to Stackpole Court – a great house demolished in 1963 – and have since become a precious wildlife habitat. It is an exciting walk in all seasons, with wildfowl on the lakes in winter and breeding seabirds on Stackpole Head in summer. Barafundle regularly appears in lists of the world's most beautiful beaches. Begin your walk in the tiny harbour of Stackpole Quay, and finish with some hearty fare back at the Boathouse Tearoom.

Lawrenny

Photograph: CW Images/Alamy

Distance 3 milesStart/finish Lawrenny Quay, grid ref: SN015065National Trust downloadable route and mapUpstream from the busy port of Milford Haven lies a world of drowned wooded valleys with a wide expanse of salt marshes and mudflats. This scenic circular walk takes you through the steep-sided ancient oak woodland of Lawrenny, overlooking the main Daugleddau river and along the tidal creeks of Garron Pill and the Cresswell river. This is a great walk in any season. In winter look for wildfowl and waders in Garron Pill, and in summer for the wild service trees growing under the oak canopy in Lawrenny Wood. Back at Lawrenny Quay, you have a choice between the Lawrenny Arms and (from Easter to autumn) the multi-award winning Quayside Lawrenny Tearoom (quaysidelawrenny.co.uk), with its legendary crab sandwiches.

Abermawr woods and beach

Photograph: The Photolibrary Wales/Alamy

Distance 1 mileStart/finish Abermawr beach turning circle, grid ref: SM 884347National Trust downloadable route and mapThis is a circular walk through bluebell woods and meadows, shingle beach and marsh. Abermawr offers a gentle interlude on one of the most rugged sections of the coastline. Brunel wanted to create a port and cable terminus here, but nature has long since reclaimed his work. A shingle beach protects a freshwater marsh, but the beach is retreating as sea levels rise and will eventually breach to create a new salt marsh. Parking is limited. Bluebells and birdsong make it a lovely walk in spring; the shady woodland offers a pleasant retreat from the beach in summer.

Garn Fawr viewpoint

Distance 1 mileStart/finish Car park at Garn Fawr, grid ref: SN898387National Trust downloadable route and mapClimb this rocky volcanic outcrop on the Pencaer peninsula for magnificent views of the north Pembrokeshire coast. It contains one of the most spectacular Iron Age forts in Pembrokeshire. Three thousand years later it was a second world war lookout point. You are close to Strumble Head, a famous spot for watching sea birds in autumn. This is a remote corner of Pembrokeshire, easily missed, but offering some fine coastal scenery.

Solva and the Gribin

Solva. Photograph: Stuart Greenhalgh/Alamy

Distance 1 mileStart/finish Solva Harbour car park, grid ref: SM805243National Trust downloadable route and mapThe pretty village of Solva is at the centre of eight miles of unspoilt coastal scenery stretching from Newgale in the east to St Davids in the west. The Gribin is a rocky headland guarding the entrance to Solva Harbour, giving spectacular views along the coast and across St Bride's Bay. This walk is a perfect complement to time spent in Solva's interesting shops and galleries, and there are plenty of places in the village to refresh yourself afterwards. For those looking for a longer walk, the shuttle bus between Newgale and St Davids lets you walk the whole stretch in a day, or half of it in a half-day. Either way, Solva falls at lunchtime.

About this article

The National Trust's top 10 Pembrokeshire walks

This article was published on
the Guardian website
at 12.44 EDT on Wednesday 11 July 2012.
It was last modified at 10.33 EST on Friday 14 November 2014.
It was first published at 05.42 EDT on Wednesday 11 July 2012.